Pineapple Fried Rice

We have a great cookbook to review today from a blogger I have worked with for years. I am excited to share with you Rice. Noodles. Yum. by Abigail Raines from Manila Spoon. From the cookbook, I wanted to share this amazing Pineapple Fried Rice {Khao Pad Sapparot} recipe. 

We love making rice dishes like our own Pineapple Coconut Rice or Rice Cooker Mexican Rice, two of our most popular rice dishes. Rice is good on its own but bringing it to the next level is always so satisfying for us. 

This Pineapple Fried Rice eats like a meal, you really don’t need much else but maybe a simple stir fry of vegetables to go with it. Although it appears to be gourmet it really is an easy recipe to make. Not any more difficult than any other fried rice recipe. 

There is a ton of delicious ingredients in this recipe but it pulls together easily. Shrimp, raisins, pineapple, cashews and tomatoes all pair lovely with a nice jasmine rice or basmati rice.

Flavors are built up one after another with garlic, onion, curry powder, fish sauce, oyster sauce, salt and sugar. 

Another nice touch of this recipe is using a freshly hollowed out pineapple for serving. This makes it a real showstopper. 

Rice. Noodles. Yum. Cookbook

In Abigail’s debut cookbook Rice. Noodles. Yum. you will find a wide arrange of the best dishes built around rice and noodles. With 75 recipes to explore all the tastes of Southeast Asian dishes you will feel like you have traveled to and explored the cuisines of the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnamese and beyond. 

“While millions of Southeast Asians eat rice and noodles on a daily basis every day, there’s less exposure to these foods on a worldwide scale,” writes Abigail in the introduction. “While there are some well-known rice and noodle dishes, they barely scratch the surface and there is so much more to discover beyond pad thai, pho and nasi goreng.”

The cookbook is divided into eight chapters:

1. Rice ‘N’ Easy
2. Delicious Noodle Dishes
3. Mouthwatering Meats
4. Satisfying Soups
5. Street Food Favorites
6. Best Ways to Begin a Day
7. Tease My Tastebuds (Salads & Nibbles)
8. Satisfy Your Sweet Cravings

There are great recipes to try like Goi Cuon (Fresh Spring Rolls), Khao Soy Gai (Curry Noodle Soup), Serabi (Indonesian Coconut Pancakes), Mee Kati (Rice Vermicelli in Coconut Milk) and Carioca (Fried Sticky Rice Balls with Coconut Caramel Sauce).

This just names a few of the many delicious recipes to choose from. All recipes also come with full color pictures, which I love. 

How to Make Pineapple Fried Rice

We first fried up big juicy prawns to be then added back into the fried rice. This adds a perfect touch and makes the dish more like a meal than a side dish. 

You have to start with leftover rice or rice that has been refrigerated or chilled. It is best to have it sit overnight. 

Garlic and onions are pan fried in a wok or large skillet. The curry is then added in until fragrant. Next you add the rice and it is mixed well with the curry mixture. Then followed by that are the raisins, pineapple, cashews and tomatoes. 

Lastly, the rice is flavored with the fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar and seasoned with salt to taste. After that the shrimp are then added back in and a garnish of green onion to finish it off. 

You can serve the rice on a platter or hollowed out pineapple, whichever you prefer. 

Is Pineapple Fried Rice Gluten Free?

As long as your ingredients like fish sauce, oyster sauce etc., are gluten free then this pineapple fried rice recipe should easily be gluten free.

However, one ingredient you may want to look closely for in the list of ingredients is soy sauce. That is usually the big culprit for gluten in Asian dishes. 

Eliminating the shrimp, fish sauce and oyster sauce this dish can be easily vegetarian and vegan.

This is an impressive dish to make, imagine bringing it to the table and seeing the looks of your family or friends!!

About the Author: Abigail Raines was born and raised in the Philippines on a remote island, one of the 7,107 in the Philippine archipelago. She has also traveled extensively in Southeast Asia. Both of these have contributed to her knowledge of cooking. 

Her recipes have been featured in Taste of Home magazine, The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Delish. She lives with her family in Hamden, Connecticut. 

Pineapple Fried Rice

Tara Noland

If you wish to impress your family and friends, this is the rice to make!

This fancy fried rice combines the flavors of pineapples, raisins and nuts plus a hint of curry that work together to produce an exquisite array of tastes in your mouth. This dish can be made vegetarian, but it’s common to add shrimp or chicken to the dish. Often served in a hollowed-out pineapple, it is sure to please the crowd every time!

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Cuisine Filippino

Servings 4 servings

Calories 727 kcal

Ingredients

 

• 2 tbsp 30 ml cooking oil of choice
• 12 oz 340 g prawns or shrimps, peeled and deveined but with tails intact
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 tbsp 15 g curry powder, or more to taste
• 4 cups 645 g cooked long-grain white rice like jasmine or basmati rice, cold or chilled
• 1 cup 150 g raisins
• 1 cup 200 g pineapple chunks (see Note)
• ½ cup 75 g cashews
• 2 tomatoes sliced and deseeded
• 2 tbsp 30 ml fish sauce
• 1 tbsp 15 ml oyster sauce
• ½ tbsp 8 g sugar
• Salt to taste
• 3 stalks or about 2 tbsp 12 g green onions, thinly sliced
• Whole pineapple for serving (optional)

Instructions

 

• In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. When the oil is hot, add the prawns and fry for 3 or 4 minutes or until fully cooked. Prawns are done when their flesh is fully opaque and bright pink. Scoop out the prawns, transfer to a plate and set aside.
• Adjust the heat to medium-low. Add the garlic and onion to the pan and cook for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add the curry powder and cook briefly, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
• Add the cooked rice to the pan and increase the heat to medium-high. Pat the rice grains down with a spatula, then fold the rice over. Do these two steps a few times until the rice grains have separated and the rice is fully coated with the curry powder. Add the raisins, pineapple, cashews and tomatoes and mix everything well. Return half of the cooked prawns to the wok. Season the mixture with the fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Stir to mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, if needed.
• Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with the remaining prawns and green onions. You can also serve this inside a hollowed-out fresh pineapple, if you like.

Equipment

Rice. Noodles. Yum.: Everyone’s Favorite Southeast Asian Dishes

Notes

To serve this dish inside a pineapple, cut a pineapple in half lengthwise. Run a knife around the edges leaving at least ½ inch (13 mm) from the edge. Then, cut the pineapple flesh three to four times across and once down the center. Scoop out the pineapple chunks using a spoon and drain the remaining juice. Smooth out the bottom surface of the bowl. Cut the pineapple you sliced into chunks and use in making the fried rice. Place the fried rice inside the cut-up pineapple just before serving.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Calories: 727kcalCarbohydrates: 115gProtein: 31gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 182mgSodium: 1914mgFiber: 6gSugar: 40g

Nutrition calculation is an estimation only. If you need nutritional calculations for medical reasons, please use a source that you trust.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!